Bobby Ferguson
"Bobby Ferguson's legal problems got worse Friday," says the top sentence by Robert Snell in a Detroit News update on Kwame Kilpatrick's friend and co-defendant.
A revised indictment -- filed under seal in the middle of the City Hall corruption trial -- adds a new firearm charge against Ferguson and drops a financial count against one of the contractor's companies. . . .
The indictment was unsealed minutes after Ferguson got dumped by his criminal defense lawyer, a move that could delay the start of a bid-rigging retrial in May.
Without public explanation, lawyer Gerald Evelyn notified a federal court judge Friday he is withdrawing. . . . The move, which must be approved by U.S. District Judge David Lawson, would mark a high-profile split between a veteran criminal defense attorney and his longtime client.
Ferguson faces 20 years or more in prison after being found guilty March 11 of racketeering and eight other federal charges. He seeks release on bond until sentencing, a move federal prosecutors opposed at a Friday hearing, Snell writes.
